Following the election of former Nigerian athlete Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju as NAWIS representative on the board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, the National Association of Women in Sports (NAWIS) has praised the leadership role of the National Sports Commission.
The NSC’s Director General, Hon. Bukola Olopade, met with the Association and the main candidates, Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju and veteran sports journalist Nneka Anibeze, to resolve any doubts that may have been raised by the results of the NAWIS election that was held in Abuja on Monday.
Anibeze lost the NAWIS election to Yusuf-Olukoju, but both have now agreed to put up a united front and cooperate for the benefit of girls’ and women’s empowerment in Nigerian sports.
Following the meeting, a delighted Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju expressed her amazement at the level of attention to detail that the current NSC leadership is providing to Nigerian sports and stated that NAWIS is extremely proud of the re-engineering that is currently taking place in Nigerian sports.
“The DG is one person that can bring everybody to one table and make us talk, which is what we need in our sports, so Nigerian sports is proud to have someone like him and the chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko, leading our sports.”
“We are all family, and as family people do fight, but the goal is to amend and move on because we all have one common goal, which is to see that the AFN succeeds.”
“No hard feelings between me and Nneka because I won the NAWIS race.” She loves athletics and has been with athletics for a very long time. She even covered me as an athlete, so I consider her an ambassador of AFN. “We will team up together and move the federation forward,” she concluded.
On her part, Nneka Anibeze also commended the NSC’s Director General for preventing tensions from rising after the election.
“I thank the DG for coming in and brokering peace because it actually would not have gone well.” He called me and everyone, and we have all agreed to accept Fatima.
“She is an icon of athletics and someone who also has her plans for women and girls, which are similar to what I had planned. We also share the same passion, and with the help of the DG, we have now agreed to work together for the same goal and believe “better things are ahead.”